Last Sunday, December 16th, I missed the Miss Universe broadcast for the first time in a long while. Born and raised in Colombia, beauty pageants were part of my culture and I always watched it with my family.
But since I moved to the U.S., almost fourteen years ago, I had to watch it alone. My husband dreaded this each year because of my non-stop yelling during the two hour phone conversation with my mother or girlfriends.
But, who wouldn’t scream bloody murder? Last year, nothing was more unexpected than Steve Harvey reading the results inaccurately and crowning the wrong Miss Universe–who happened to be Miss Colombia–on live television! If I were she, I would have punched him and run like the contestant in the movie Miss Congeniality!
Nonetheless, it seems my home country is truly evolving, and Miss Universe and the local beauty pageants are now just another TV show on the TV guide, a sharp difference from the past.
As long as I can remember, the national beauty pageant–Reinado Nacional de la Belleza en Cartagena de Indias in Spanish–was on the front page of every news organization for two weeks. The contest’s wastefulness and extravagance was revealed by the countless private parties where politics and showbiz got intertwined.
Every year, the Colombian pageant was a monument to social injustice. Each state delegation sent a huge entourage, all expenses paid, and the participants wore millions in clothes and accessories.
And who paid the tab? The taxpayers. Nevertheless, it was more important to crown a queen without a throne or subjects, than endow schools and hospitals or complete the countless infrastructure projects around the country.
At the same time, even though the pageant generated a lot of revenue in tourism for the city, it also exacerbated other problems, such as human trafficking and child prostitution.
Whether the TV channel RCN ran out of money or the audience ran out of interest, I applaud that beauty pageants are finally receiving the attention they deserve, which is very little.
Beauty pageants like Miss Universe don’t just judge beauty, but also freedom of expression. If anything, this year’s edition showed that these contests have become another platform of the progressive movement, which doesn’t allow opinion or critique about the contestants.
Beauty pageants are missing their purpose. Why can’t they just celebrate beauty without the political correctness? If this continues, world peace will have to find a new forum to get free publicity.
Thank you for reading and sharing and Merry Christmas to my loyal readers!
Xiomara Spadafora
Good crazy woman 